The Rapid Development Of DCS Simulation Training Systems Using DELPHI

In the petrochemical factories of China since 1990, accompanied with the construction of new apparatus, the scale-up of old apparatus and the improvement of control system, the distributed control system (DCS) get more and more applications. Meanwhile, the scale and complexity of the factories are increased, the effects of the traditional training methods such as teaching in classroom are unsatisfactory, because there are only listening, looking and taking notes, and the operational trains of start-up, shut-down and malfunction are very lack. The use of the computer simulation training system in the training of the operators can compensate the shortcoming of traditional teaching and training, and improve the training efficiency significantly.In the petrochemical industry, there have been more than 20 simulation training centers in the factories. In these centers, there are lots of engineer specialized in process control, chemical engineering and computer technology. How to utilize the human and material resources to develop the computer simulation training system more independently and more quickly with lower costs and higher efficiency is an project which we should study. In this thesis, based on the research and practice in the development of the DCS simulation training systems for petrochemical industry, a new development strategy based on the DELPHI development studio is proposed to develop the simulation training systems more quickly with lower costs and higher efficiency. The strategy can also be applied in the development of the DCS simulation training systems for other industries, such as papermaking or pharmaceutical industry.The key of the development of simulation training systems is application of DCS simulation development studio. The development studios can be classified into two categories: foreign studios and native studios. The advantages of the DCS simulation development studio is the abundance of general unit model, but the studios available at present cannot configurate DCS operating menu and mode as the same as the true DCS, which reduce the training effect.The main feature of our new strategy is that the one machine or more machines running mode, the teacher station, the operator station and the field station are assigned by the configuration file. To different DCS, the development of the teacher station and the field station is carried out by editing the database file of control configuration; meanwhile, the development of the operator station is carried out first by editing the components in the frame and then by configurating the components in the IDE of DELPHI. All these measures ensure efficient development.The new development strategy of the simulation training systems based on the DELPHI development studio is proposed from the successful development experiences of crude oil unit, aromatic extraction unit, gas fractionation unit, polypropylene unit and so on in Jiujiang Petrochemical Factory. The strategy is applied in the development of the simulation training systems for 60xl04t/a hydrorefining unit and 30x104t/a catforming unit in Jiujiang Petrochemical Factory and Huhehaote Petrochemical Factory.